First off - let me apologize for my webcast answer. SCR is something I was not aware of yet, so I didn't catch on to what you were talking about.

Now.. after searching-it-out - I see that It's a new technology that is a part of Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Exchange Server 2007. It's a wicked-cool extension of LCR and CCR-type log shipping; but much more.

"Do you have to have to create a recovery storage group in order to restore exchange 2007?"

I didn't want to say this during the Q&A session on the live webcast... but... Weren't you paying attention?!

No.. you don't. As we talked about - you can restore storage groups to pretty much anywhere... as long as you've defined that mailbox database on a server, you can copy the files over or restore them there, and mount it. Truly portable databases.

"Can all of the roles reside on a single server?"

All but the Edge and any clustered Mailbox servers. In a cluster, the Mailbox Role needs to be the only one.. and at the Edge, the Edge Transport Role has to be alone as well. But otherwise you could have Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport, and Unified Messaging Roles all on the same server if you choose. Or mix and match. :)

We're talking about Infrastructure management using Forefront, System Center (Ops Manager 2007, Configuration Manager 2007, and Essentials), as well as a discussion of Networking improvements in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

A very cool offer came to my inbox from an internal source about an offer that Verio is promoting. I verified that it was indeed "bloggable" and open to the public.

Yes.. you get a free website. And you can use it until 2010.

"What's the catch?"

The catch is that you're using hosted Microsoft technologies. The offer is geared towards developers and designers, and is specifically in order to promote Microsoft-based hosting solutions including MS Expression, Visual Studio, and Silverlight.

"The Free hosting program – based on IIS 6 and Windows Server 2003 – will run through January 2010. No credit card is required."

"Wow! Where do I go to sign-up?"

This is not an online offer. In fact, except for this blog post, I don't know that you'll find news about this anywhere else on the web (until other people blog about it, that is.)

You need to call Verio for this. 1-800-932-7483.

And here is the "Contact Verio" page, in case you need another way to reach them.

It is a rather cute site, though.. promoting various social networking options you have under Windows Live. That's cool.

But.. when you mouse-over the face of the woman at the counter... I dunno. Her smile kinda creeps me out. And the fake neon light seems to have a short.. it's flickering.

"What's Microsoft BOB? Did I miss an e-mail?"

No... it's not a new product. And BOB is not an acronym for anything (at least not officially). Those of you who have been computing for awhile may remember back in '95 our product called "Microsoft BOB", which was an attempt to put a sort of friendly, easy navigation layer on top of Windows 95. It was supposed to make it easy for my mother-in-law to use the computer. But it was an idea WAY ahead of its time (my mother-in-law wouldn't have a computer for another 8 years), and it was a dismal failure. Even more dismal than Windows ME.